I’m trying something new. I am actually building a day or two into my week where I don’t have any official chores on my list. Shh..don’t tell my husband. But in all seriousness, since my second child was born, I have been a whirlwind of multitasking mommyness…and let’s face it, life was not meant to be all multitask all the time. Its gotten to the point that I can’t even watch a movie at home without having something else in my hands to do. It drives my husband crazy. He’s constantly begging me to just sit down and watch a movie with him. For some reason, I can’t slow down (maybe I think I’ll just crash and never reboot). Whatever the case, I’ve gotten a little too crazy.
I can vaguely remember a time, long ago, when I could sit with a piece of paper and a pen and with a deep breath explore the thoughts and worries running around in my brain. As those thoughts poured out onto the page, so did the tension in my body. But who has time for that? The answer is you need to make time. I need to make time. Maybe this isn’t the season in my life when I can necessarily get out of the house to release my tension. Maybe some of my current dreams have taken a back seat for a short while. But I think I need to give myself the gift of unscheduled, uncluttered time.
Now this ain’t gonna happen overnight. And as sure as I am writing this right now, tomorrow my daughter will wake up with a fever. But here’s my first step. I changed my weekly schedule. I have a weekly chore list that keeps me humming. Basically it lists the little things that have to happen every day: feeding the dog (for some reason I forget this easily), making the bed, think about dinner, do dishes, etc. Then I have a chore or a few chores to complete that day. This system works for me because if I just started the week off with a list of all the things I needed to do I would feel way overwhelmed. This breaks down all that week’s worth of cleaning into smaller little chunks. And it tells me “hey, this is all you have to do today. If you get more done, great…but no worries.” For example, on Mondays I clean the bathrooms and do laundry…Wednesday I vacuum, dust, and occasionally mop (that’s right…I said occasionally)…and the list goes on.
I have now made Tuesdays no cleaning days. Those are now my days. Sure I still have to tidy and feed the dog and all those little things, but I’m going to give myself a whole day for me (well, as much as you can have a “me” day with two little ones running around). And I think maybe the goal in the long run is to start slowing down on those days and spending a little more quality time with the kids. Actually create some moments instead of surviving till bedtime. Its a nice thought and a good, if not lofty goal. And maybe it will open up opportunities to schedule more “me” time.
Life’s just too short to have a spotless house…
Amen, sister… as I sit among all the things I have to get done today! LOL I tried to do the Motivated mom thing, which is essentially what you have been doing, and it left NO TIME for me to do anything else but tend to my kids and house. It lasted about two weeks and then I lost the desire to have the house that I was on top of all the time. I think your Tuesday plan is a great one! That is pretty much what I do, I spend a few days hitting the house hard and then I watch it go downhill for a couple so I can do things like Sew, edit pictures, or blog Don’t be surprised if it takes you a while to get use to it. It took me a LONG time to get use to Keith coming home and the house not being in order EVERY night and to stop apologizing for it. And truth be told, right now it is in utter disarray so today is certainly not an Emily day. BUT, at this rate maybe my Tuesday can be too!
totally agree. I find that I have a hard time notdoing something. I had to keep telling myself to focus on the filing this afternoon because I kept getting side-tracked. LOL…I have ADHD…Attention Deficit Housecleaning Disorder. We shall see how tomorrow goes. I still have those daily things that have to get done, but I plan to finish a quilt top, maybe take the kids for a walk…and of course go get some cold medicine for the little man…his nose is running like a faucet. I am also a huge list person, so if I have a list to check off I feel so much better. I’ll post my weekly list for you to gander at…at times I hate it, but it keeps me sane…and sometimes its kinda fun to just cross thru something and say “I choose not to do that at all this week…cleanliness be darned”… :p
As my mother (she’s 84yo and raised 5 kids) still says, “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I lost count how many times I’ve said that to myself over the years. The best thing to ever happen as a result of having my own kids…suggesting to my husband that if the dirty kitchen floor bothers him, he can clean it. That stopped the ‘dirty house’ comments in their tracks. Now he loads the dishwasher and does the ironing.